Compositus: Answers to key
questions in Budd's Flora and Flora of Alberta leading to this
species.

plants NOT producing leafy stolons

leaves bifid, or trifid, or 2-4 times
ternately dissected; NOT entire, NOT [some irregularly toothed or lobed at the apex,
other more or less entire]

leaf-segments less than 1 mm wide

basal leaf segment NOT obviously
dilated apically

involucre hirsute but NOT densely
villose

heads discoid or with short
inconspicuous ray florets; NOT with well-developed ray florets

Erigeron: Answers to key questions in
Budd's Flora and Flora of Alberta leading to this genus. The
answers do not match all species of Erigeron found in the Canadian
prairies, but they do match this species.

plants NOT with well-developed taproot

juice watery; NOT milky

plants NOT [densely caespitose, seldom
more than 5 cm tall, the heads sessile among the leaves]

involucral bracts subequal or more or
less imbricate, often green in part, but neither definitely leafy nor
with chartaceous base and herbaceous green tip; NOT [either subequal and
the outer leafy or more commonly evidently imbricate, with chartaceous
base and evident green tip, sometimes chartaceous throughout] (Flora
of Alberta)

bracts unequal; NOT nearly equal (Budd's
Flora)

receptacle naked

flower heads with florets both tubular
and ray; NOT all florets tubular

ligulate flowers when present
pistillate or neuter; NOT perfect

ray florets NOT conspicuous

rays white, to pink, purple or blue;
NOT yellow, NOT orange

stamens united to form a tube around
the pistil

style branches 0.5 mm long or less, or
obsolete; NOT [ordinarily more than 0.5 mm long]

style branches lanceolate or broader;
NOT [lanceolate or narrower]

styles branches acute to obtuse; NOT
[acute or acuminate]

pappus of capillary bristles, at least
in part; NOT [of 1 or 2 short awns, a mere crown or none]